Medical board backs prescription drug reforms

The Medical Board of California is backing measures to combat prescription drug abuse in the wake of a report that found a link between physician-prescribed narcotics and overdose deaths.

The board, meeting in Los Angeles on Friday, voted to support legislation requiring coroners to report prescription drug overdose deaths to the board and to give the panel new power to halt a doctor's prescribing in some cases, the Los Angeles Times ( http://lat.ms/17nW8LQ) reported.

The board also voted to create a task force to develop guidelines for prescribing painkillers.

The medical board is charged with overseeing more than 100,000 physicians in California, but its president said last month that it lacks the power to identify those who might be overprescribing.

Sharon Levine told a joint legislative committee that the board lacks the authority to use the state's tracking system, the Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System, to identify doctors who may be purposely overprescribing unless it is acting in response to a specific complaint.

A Times investigation last year found that between 2006 and 2011, doctor-prescribed drugs caused or contributed to nearly half the accidental deaths involving prescription drugs in four Southern California counties.

In its review, the Times reported that at least 30 Southern California patients died while their doctors were under investigation. While the board sanctioned all but one of those 12 doctors, in most cases, doctors are allowed to continue writing prescriptions after they are sanctioned.